V strukture zabolevaniy biliarnogo trakta zhelchno-kamennaya bolezn' i kholesteroz zhelchnogo puzyrya zanimayut znachitel'noe mesto. No esli ZhKB otnositsya k naibolee rasprostranennym zabolevaniyam v mire - do 10% v obshchey populyatsii po dannym razlichnykh avtorov, to KhZhP do nedavnego vremeni schitalsya redkim i trudnodiagnostsiruemym zabolevaniem. Odnako, soglasno statistike, on vyyavlyaetsya v 39% sluchaev pri kholetsistektomii i v 46% - pri autopsii. Nesmotrya na to, chto etim zabolevaniyam udelyaetsya pristal'noe vnimanie uchenykh vsego mira, v patogeneze kak ZhKB, tak i KhZhP ostaetsya mnogo neyasnykh i spornykh momentov. Analiz literatury po etomu voprosu svidetel'stvuet o mnozhestve obshchikh patogeneticheskikh faktorov razvitiya khronicheskikh zabolevaniy zhelchevyvodyashchikh putey.